Retired jeweller and his wife die within days of each other
A RETIRED jewellery shop owner and his wife have died with coronavirus within days of each other.
Richard Tracey ran a number of jewellery shops in Newport, Cwmbran, Chepstow and Monmouth during the 1970s and 1980s.
The 94-year-old tested positive for Covid-19 about two weeks after being injured in a fall at the home where he spent his retirement in Chichester, West Sussex.
He died in hospital on April 18. Noreen Tracey, 98, developed symptoms a few days after her husband died and was taken to hospital.
She died overnight on April 27. The couple’s son Neil Vandersay-Tracey, who lives near Monmouth, said his father would be remembered as a respected jeweller in South Wales.
“Dad was driven to better himself,” Neil, 61, said.
“He was born into a poor family in north London, worked hard in the print trade in Fleet Street and then Canada, and became a jeweller by accident really.”
Neil said his father first worked in the jewellery trade in Geoffrey Richard, who had a shop at the bottom of Stow Hill in Newport in the 1970s. In 1976 he decided to go solo, sold the family home and invested the money in a shop around the corner on Skinner Street.
Neil said: “He was lucky with timings, as shortly after Llanwern Steelworks started offering very big redundancy packages and many spent it on holidays, kitchens, jewellery and watches.
“The business expanded quickly. He bought an existing jewellery shop in High Street arcade in Newport, which he renamed The Gwent Jewellers.”
Mr Tracey went on to acquire branches in Monmouth, Cwmbran, Welshpool, and Chepstow. At one point he ran six in total.
“He retired in 1990 and I decided to shrink the business,” Neil said. “Unfortunately, in 2007 a combination of the global banking meltdown and my health issues saw the last shop in Monmouth close.”
Neil said a full family memorial service would be organised when lockdown measures restricting gatherings are lifted.